In 1918, Ormer Locklear, an American pilot came up with a stunt that enthralled the crowds. He would climb out of the aeroplane and walk along the wing and even climb from one aeroplane onto to another. Originally Locklear had come out of the cockpit during flying to fix a technical problem while training during the world war 1. When the war was over there were hundreds of planes lying around that were would not be needed any more. And that's how wingwalking a stunning and daring part of aerobatic performance was invented to visually delight the crowd.
To coincide with the opening of the first Breitling boutique in Kuwait, the luxury Swiss watch brand had organized the UK based Breitling Wingwalkers airshow for the public at Marina Crescent on Saturday 8 March. We were there a bit early yesterday and wondered when would it start and if the show was still on. Then when we heard the sound of the planes just before the show began around 2.1O pm.
Breitling Wingwalker team's performance was nothing less than spectacular. It lasted for about 2O minutes. My husband and I have seen plenty of airshows by airforce jets, but this is the first time, we got to see wingwalking. The planes used were the 193O's Boeing Stearman biplanes. There were two airplanes with two daredevil wingwalking girls, one on top of each plane. They did different poses on the top wing of the plane, while the planes manouvered into loops, rolls, turns and inverted flight with speeds of up to 24O km per hour. Every time the plane flew low we could see the wingwalkers quite clearly in their graceful poses.
Here are some photos I took. My lens from the inside has a spot and I have it give it for repair. Can you see the wingwalkers in their different poses?
